Integrating Lean Management in elderly care: Tailoring healthcare services for enhanced quality and patient satisfaction

The healthcare system strives to balance cost-optimization with high-quality patient services. Lean Management has been extensively adopted in healthcare to enhance resource efficiency and effectiveness. However, integrating patient-specific needs, especially for the elderly, poses significant challenges. This research explores three key areas: (1) current priorities and challenges of Lean implementation in Polish healthcare units; (2) a conceptual approach for incorporating elderly patients’ needs into Lean Implementation through needs analysis and value co-creation; (3) the use of tools such as anchoring vignettes, diaries, and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to comprehensively integrate elderly patients’ needs into healthcare services.